Jane Kise

As both a freelance writer and management consultant, I enjoy helping individuals and teams reach their full potential, providing them with practical tools and models to successfully continue the process on their own. I'm the author or coauthor of over a dozen books and frequently conduct workshops on spiritual gifts, prayer, and career planning.

I hold an MBA in finance from the University of Minnesota and a doctorate in Educational Leadership from the University of St. Thomas. A majority of my consulting time now goes to school staff development work. I help them use psychological type as an organizing theory for team building, classroom management, lesson planning, and differentiating for interests, abilities, and other factors.

As a child, I often received autographed books by Elizabeth Hamilton Freiermood, a family friend who wrote historical fiction for teenage girls. When I was 10, we visited her home and I sat in the chair where she scribed her books in spiral notebooks, then retyped them with a manual typewriter (no one had so much as an electric one back then.)

Those experiences compelled me to major in English at Hamline University, but I also picked up a business major after my boyfriend warned me that I'd otherwise end up copyediting in the back room of a magazine for the rest of my life! So, my first published writing efforts were things like "Risk and Bank Capital Structure" for the Federal Reserve Bank, my first job.

After 10+ years in the banking field, I decided to combine writing and consulting. Knowing how hard it is to break into publishing, I looked for practical ways to chalk up more writing credits and joined a committee at my church to develop a class on spiritual gifts. Another committee member, Sandra Krebs Hirsh, had published several books. She hired me to edit a second edition of one and to help her write a book on team building.

The spiritual gifts class became our book LifeKeys: Who You Are, Why You're Here, What You Do Best. Sandra and I went on to write several other books together. I've also written two more with our other LifeKeys coauthor David Stark. And, one with our LifeKeys editor, Kevin Johnson.